1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector provided with a shorting terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-64642 relates to an electrical connector used in an automotive air-bag circuit, and, typical of such prior art connectors, is provided with a shorting terminal. The prior art connector of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-64642 also is illustrated in FIG. 10 of this application. More particularly, the prior art connector of FIG. 10 includes a female housing 1. A plurality of female terminal fittings 2 are accommodated in a side-by-side array in the female housing 1, and a shorting terminal 3 is accommodated in an accommodating chamber 7 in the housing 1. The shorting terminal 3 is held in contact with the female terminal fittings 2 to short them to each other.
A prior art mating male housing 4 is provided with tab-shaped male terminal fittings 5 that are engageable with the female terminal fittings 2. Additionally, the prior art male housing 4 is provided with a shorted state clearing rib 6 that can be inserted between the female terminal fittings 2 and the shorting terminal 3. The shorting terminal 3 shorts the female terminal fittings 2 before the housings 1 and 2 are connected. However the clearing rib 6 is inserted between the shorting terminal 3 and the female terminal fittings 2 and elastically deforms the shorting terminal 3 when the male and female terminal fittings 2 and 5 are connected. As a result the shorted state of the female terminal fittings 2 is cleared.
Since the clearing rib 6 projects from an engaging surface of the male housing 4, it may be struck and broken by external contact. Additionally, the relatively thin width of the clearing rib 6 creates a potential for an error during molding. For example, there have been cases where the plastic material did not sufficiently fill the mold cavity for the thin clearing rib 6. As a result, the clearing rib 6 was not sufficiently long to reach the shorting terminal 3 even when the housings 1, 4 were completely connected with each other. Consequently, the shorted state of the female terminal fittings 2 by the shorting terminal 3 may be not cleared even though the housings 1, 4 are properly connected with each other.
The above-described problem can be avoided by increasing the thickness of the clearing rib 6. However, a larger clearing rib 6 increases the elastic deformation of the shorting terminal 3. Therefore, the height of the accommodating chamber 7 needs to be increased to ensure such an increased degree of deformation, resulting in a larger connector. It has been difficult to deal with this problem.
The present invention was developed in view of the above problems, and an object of the invention is to provide a connector capable of clearing a shorted state of a shorting terminal without using a clearing rib.